MatchCrystal Palace v Liverpool: Team news

Isak featured for the opening 45 minutes of Tuesday’s 2-1 Carabao Cup victory over Southampton, scoring his first Reds goal in the process.

He was replaced at the interval by fellow forward Ekitike, who supplied the winner late on but was then sent off for a second yellow card.

With the latter set to serve his resulting one-match domestic ban for the Premier League clash at Selhurst Park, head coach Arne Slot was asked if Isak could be named in his XI.

“He’s able to make minutes again. I still feel 90 – [it] depends also on the pace and the intensity of the game – might be a bit too much,” said Slot.

“But not only that, also for the long term. So you can maybe give one, I would call, stupid hit to bring him to 90 and then you brought him too far over the line. So, I don’t think it’s smart to play him 90 yet.

“But he’s further into his pre-season now and normally after two or three weeks in pre-season players go to 60, 70 minutes, and in some clubs they even bring them to 90. But if you look at our pre-season, we mainly bring them to 60 to 70 minutes then.”

Defender Giovanni Leoni is, however, beginning a lengthy spell on the sidelines after being forced off in midweek against Saints due to injury.

“He is not in a good place, of course, because he tore his ACL and it means he will be out for a year,” Slot explained at his pre-match press conference.

Palace will welcome forward Ismaila Sarr back to the fold following a three-fixture absence through injury.

Despite coming off at half-time last weekend against West Ham United, Yeremy Pino remains at Oliver Glasner’s disposal.

The Eagles manager told reporters: “He [Sarr] had the full training week, the same as Adam [Wharton] and Eddie [Nketiah last week].

“We always nominate the squad when we think everybody is ready to start. I don’t know if he can play 90 minutes – I don’t know how intense the game will be – but he’s ready.

“[Pino] just had to rest on Tuesday. He had a bone bruise – he took a knock, knee on knee, which was very painful – but since Wednesday he’s been training for the rest of the week. He feels fine, so he’s also available.”

Glasner is unable to call upon Cheick Doucoure, Caleb Kporha and Chadi Riad for the 3pm BST kick-off.

Last match

West Ham 1-2 Palace (September 20): Henderson, Lacroix, Guehi, Richards, Wharton, Hughes, Munoz, Mitchell, Kamada, Mateta, Pino.

Liverpool 2-1 Southampton (September 23): Mamardashvili, Frimpong, Leoni, Gomez, Robertson, Endo, Nyoni, Jones, Chiesa, Ngumoha, Isak.